


The Phoenix and the Flame

by SilverNight88



Series: Fire & Water [2]
Category: Avengers, Avengers (Comics), Invaders, Invaders (Marvel), X-Men, X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, AvX - Freeform, Avengers vs X-men, Chaos, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Marvel Comics - Freeform, Phoenix - Freeform, Possession, ben grimm - Freeform, destruction of city, general desciptions of mayham, pietro maximoff - Freeform, red hulk - Freeform, this takes place during the time namor attacked wakanda
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-14
Updated: 2018-06-14
Packaged: 2019-05-23 07:45:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14930111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverNight88/pseuds/SilverNight88
Summary: What if Wanda hadn't been able to stop Namor? What if she had to find someone who could? Can Jim drive the Phoenix out of it's host and save the man he loves?





	The Phoenix and the Flame

The Phoenix and the Flame

 

 

The sound of fire crackling filled his ears. Namor rolls his neck back and listens. It _whispers_ to him.

 **_Burn_ ** _._

He takes a breath, feels his chest rise and fall as the smell of smoke fills his nose. His hand tightens on the trident.

**_Burn._ **

His green eyes open, there is an image of fire in their reflection. His voice as if two beings spoke at once echo within each other.

_**“Burn.”** _

The day the Phoenix Five became a reality, all things changed. Now this day another thing would change. Wakanda for the first time in its history was under a large scale attack that it was helpless to prevent. The Avengers, the Wakandians, the entire world watched as Namor the Sub-Mariner, King of Atlantis and possessor of one-fifth of the Phoenix Force flew above the masses and set everything ablaze. They scrambled below him like ants. His anger was fanned by the flames of the bird that rested in his mind. Its constant whispering drove him mad.

**_Namor…  We are one._ **

He knew that this thing was not him, he struggled to rise from the inferno that engulfed him, all around him was red, red, **_red._**

**_We are fire._ **

He sets more buildings to fire and using his trident made the water rise higher.

**_We are death._ **

“YOU SEEK TO DEFY ME?!”

Namor’s voice echoes with the sound of the phoenix. It rings over the capital city of Wakanda. He hears them below, screaming, pleading, cursing his name. The destruction he rains down. The loss of life. The pure chaos as the fire rages.

**_We are life incarnate._ **

“Shame on you Namor.”

Rogers is there, his face filled with anger and disappointment. The bird neither acknowledges nor cares. He hears them trying to stop him, the heroes trying to stop a king, they all converge on him and try to drag him into the dirt, fists rain down on his body, on his face and all the while the phoenix screams in his brain.

**_We are Phoenix!_ **

**_BURN. BURN THEM ALL._ **

He fights, harder now, his body is taken over by the phoenix, its flames rise. Inside his mind he is screaming. He begs… begs for release.

_Stop this! I am not you. Leave me be._

**_We are one Namor now and forever._ **

_I am… I am Namor. I am not you._

**_We are a creature of fire and life and death and all will bow before us or all will burn._ **

_I am a creature of water and waves. The sand on my skin and salt on my tongue. I am **not** Phoenix._

*****

“You do not touch me.”

He breaks the red hulk's arm when he is touched.

“You do not dishonor me.”

Namor throws the red hulk back and punches Grimm in the face.

“I am homo superior. I am your king!”

He flies now, up into the air; the flames around him become the shape of the phoenix.

“THE POWER WAS GIVEN TO US. WE WERE CHOSEN.  I WAS CHOSEN. YOU DARE TO DEFY US?”

He throws his fists up and screams into the air as the fire burns hotter.

*****

“Wanda! NOW! You have to take him down!”

“I'M TRYING. The- the phoenix, I’ve never seen such power.” Beads of sweat fall down her forehead as she flies before Namor and tries to defeat the phoenix, her magic a an angry pulsing scarlet and the lights form around her hands her fingers move as fast as they can, but it is too much, the flames burn too bright, on the ground the heroes scramble, some to save the people they can and others to try and distract Namor from focusing on Wanda. She feels her heart race as she calls up the power within her only to find it pales in comparison to the bird of flames. Namor is flying towards her now his eyes hold her death in them. On instinct and without thinking she taps into the chaos magic within her, and throws out a spell with the most unlikely probability. Before her a scarlet light forms and then is engulfed in flames as a man burns in the center.

Too late Namor is here.

She crosses her arms in front of her as a shield. Namor collides with the man of flames before her and their combined fire knock her back through the air, her cape whips around her body, the ends of the scarlet fabric are in flames as she falls, her eyes temporarily blinded from the blast of the collision and she cannot see, but she feels arms around her and her brother’s voice.

“It’s ok Wanda, it’s ok.”

“Pietro I- I think I brought a man back from the dead.”

*****

Jim Hammond was in darkness one moment and the next, light. It reminded him of those years long past when he was in the ground, he barely had time to open his eyes before a massive force hit him and he spun through the air, screams where everywhere and for a moment he thought he had just burned his way out of his concrete prison. Then he opened his eyes to find a city in flames, not New York, and not his fire… this place was beautiful but it was also in agony, people littered the streets, some dead, and other fighting… fighting fire.

No, they were fighting a man and the flames around him resembled a bird. He had heard of this thing, The Phoenix.

“Jim?”

Steve’s voice was usually happy when he called out his friends name but now it held disbelief and worry, he couldn’t stop Namor and now his old friend was back from the dead. He didn’t know what was going on and he couldn’t believe that Jim was here now.

“Steve.”

Jim is relieved and Steve jogs over to him holding out a hand to help him up. Jim grasps it and stands, he claps Steve on the shoulder in greeting but it is overshadowed by the urgency in Steve’s voice.

“I want to ask how this is possible but I have a feeling Wanda had something to do with it. Maybe she thought you were our best chance of stopping him.” Steve says as his eyes return skyward.

“Who?”

Steve points and Jim looks back at the Phoenix, its flames have ebbed a bit and with a sick twist in his gut he sees the man within the fire.

Namor.

“What happened?”

“I can explain later but can you stop him?”

Jim isn’t sure, he always knew Namor had a temper but also he knew that Namor would never have attacked innocents like this. He knew that whatever this was that Namor would sooner die than let himself be used as a weapon.

“I need space Steve. Lots of it. Whatever happens don’t try to come between us.”

Steve nods his head and begins to call out orders and the heroes slowly back off, moving to a safe distance. Jim squares his shoulders and begins a slow walk toward Namor.

The King of Atlantis notices the absence of enemies and twists around to see where they have gone; he stops when he sees Jim. Slowly, like a tiger watching its prey, he moves so that he is facing the Human Torch. His eyes are glowing with the phoenix’s flame and his armor looks white hot from the flames. Jim wondered if he touched the metal on his shoulders would his skin burn?

“Namor.”

Jim watches to see if Namor will recognize him, he sees no reaction and so he speaks again, softer, as he closes the distance between them.

“Namor, it’s me.”

A pointed ear twitches as Namor cocks his head like a bird to watch him.

“Na-”

**“Stop saying his name. Call us Phoenix.”**

The Phoenix is speaking to him but Jim also hears Namor’s voice, it sounds strange, like echoes off a cave wall, he stops a few feet before him and his lips thin, he feels anger slowly start to burn in his chest. His reply is short.

“No.”

 **“You would defy me? I who am Life? I who am Death? I who am Fire**?” Namor’s sneer is ugly and Jim has never had Namor look at him with disgust like that before. Jim takes a breath to remind himself that it wasn’t Namor looking at him but the Phoenix.

“I don’t give a fuck who you are. You have my friend hostage and you will release him,” The Human Torch’s voice is strong and carries so that all can hear, he isn’t cowed by this creature.

**“I will burn you; I will watch your flesh peel, and your blood boil, I Am PHOENIX!”**

Jim turns his head slightly to smirk a bit before trying to control his face and facing him again. “You just go ahead and try that why don’t you? Go on, _Burn_ me.”

Jim has never feared the flames.

*****

_Inside his mind Namor pounds against the fiery bars that hold him in place as the phoenix controls his thoughts, Namor wants to scream Jim’s name, his friend, how his heart stopped when he saw him standing there. Jim’s smile was cold but his voice was the same as it had ever been, Namor’s thoughts sinks down into ocean of ashes as the Phoenix pushes him back, **Jim,** he cries knowing that it is useless and that the Human Torch cannot hear him. Like a man drowning, the ashes cover his body. Now at this chest and he sinks further and further down until only his hand is left trying to pull himself up, **Jim run.** His thoughts echo as the flames rise again and Phoenix attacks._

The Phoenix within Namor SCREAMS and his hand points the trident at Jim unleashing a tornado of fire, it incinerates everything in its path, the rocks are blown to dust and Jim stands there as his blonde hair is blown back.

He laughs.

“Stop that. You’re tickling me.”

Namor stops and Phoenix is confused, no one has ever survived that. No one.

**“What are you?”**

“Me?” Jim points his thumb at his chest, his smile is all teeth and no warmth, “I’m the Human Torch, and now you are going to find out what that means.” Jim snaps his fingers and his entire body engulfs in flame. The Phoenix is not afraid of the fire, instead its anger at being unable to harm Hammond is strong and now it wants to make it known to the world.

The Phoenix unleashes his power and a ten foot radius around him is decimated leaving him in a crater of burned ground. Jim doesn’t wait a moment longer and both men are screaming now as they fly towards each other, the next few moments are filled with punches and shouts as the two creatures of fire fight. The phoenix is unused to having someone who doesn’t fear his flames and he is caught off balance by Jim's cool anger, he tries to wrap his hands around the Human Torch’s neck and squeeze the life out of him.

“Namor.”

Jim’s voice croaks out as the Phoenix tries to snap his neck.

“Namor.”

**“SHUT UP!”**

“Namor!”

_“Jim.”_

Jim hears his voice and inside he breaks, Namor’s voice is small and it’s quickly drowned out by the Phoenix.

**“BURN!”**

Jim has had _enough_ , this thing had his friend, and it would pay. He grabs the hands around his neck his fingernails digging into the flesh of Namor’s wrists and then slowly starts to free himself, Namor had always been a strong bastard but now Jim was straining to move him. Finally he was free and with his hands still holding Namor’s wrists Jim bared his teeth in a fierce snarl.

“My turn.”

Jim pushed the fire towards the phoenix. All that he had in him, then he drew in oxygen from his surroundings to burn hotter. He saw the phoenix become confused and try to push the fire back.

Jim knew fighting fire with fire was anyone’s game all it would take was one slip of his concentration and the phoenix would engulf him. The phoenix seemed to come to the same conclusion he had because it tried to mess with head.

**“He is here, in here, do you really want to hurt him?”**

Jim gritted his teeth and called forth more flame. The red flames turned orange.

**“He is weak, calling out your name over and over again.”**

Jim made the mistake of looking away from where he was concentrating his power to look into Namor’s eyes; he saw the phoenix there twisting Namor’s face into an ugly smile as he pushed his cosmic power towards the Torch. Jim held hard against him. He felt like the phoenix was trying to harness the sun.

“ARRrraagghh!” Jim’s screech was accompanied by him forcing his head forward to smack into Namor’s skull. _CRACK._ Jim knew he only shattered bone but it was enough, the phoenix was dazed and Jim pulled him close and said in a deadly whisper.

“You may be the _Phoenix_ but I am the **Flame**. You are made up of me, the inferno is my domain and you are hurting the man I love. Now it’s your turn to feel the fire.” The phoenix looked into Jim’s sky blue eyes and saw the determination there; Jim only hesitated to say, “Forgive me Namor.”

The Human Torch turned into living flame, his fire burned so hot that it turned white and he pulled in the man he loved most in the world and kissed him.

The Phoenix within Namor struggled, trying to wrench itself free from the kiss but Jim wouldn’t let it. His lips were aflame; they scorched the sea king's lips. Jim didn’t want to hurt Namor but neither could he let this bird continue to hold his friend. He deepened the kiss and pulled Namor closer until their bodies were intertwined. The phoenix tried so hard to fly free, it clawed his back but each drop of his synthetic blood only added to fire, like wood it feed the flames. Jim kissed Namor in a tornado of flames and when he finally pulled back an inch; Jim whispered against burned lips “Leave him, or I will turn you to _ash_.”

The phoenix screamed and Namor screamed along with it and then a blast as phoenix fire combined with the Torches in a final desperate attempt. This was no fair fight, Jim battled for the soul of the man he loved and so his inner fire was far stronger than any cosmic being. Then there was a pure blinding white light and that made it hard for any of the other waiting heroes to see.

A large bolt of fire shot straight up into the sky with a birds screech, and the Phoenix flew on wings of fire as left the place where it had caused so much destruction.

When the light began to die down the heroes formed a circle around the place where Jim and the Phoenix had fought, watching as the fire slowly ebbed. Steve stepped forward when a figure was made out; he stared in shock as Jim stood. His fire was now blue, the color so cool it almost looked like water when compared to the angry pulsing red and oranges of before. In his arms he carried an unconscious Namor.

“Jim, you did it.”

Jim looked up from watching Namor’s face to give Steve a weak smile, “I know.”

Then the red hulk stepped forward, “Were taking Namor into custody.”

“You can take him if you want.” Jim said in a cool tone, “But you will have to face me first.” His body was still burning and the Red Hulk stared at Jim while he thought. In the end he seemed to decide against fighting the man who had defeated the phoenix and instead let Jim leave with Namor.

*****

One week later Jim turned off the news where they had been covering the subject of Namor’s attack on Wakanda again. He sighed before running his hands through inky black hair. He knew that Namor was awake even though the king hadn’t moved an inch.

“Don’t listen to that.”

Namor’s voice was soft but clear, “Why not Jim? They are right aren’t they? I’m the mad man who attacked Wakanda. The terrorist.”

Jim continued his slow steady pace, his strong fingers slowly threading though the strands, “Namor it wasn’t you.”

“It was.”

“It was the phoenix.”

“I was the phoenix.”

“No, you are Namor, a stubborn, angry, grumpy ass… and I know you. You would have never attacked Wakanda without just cause, nor would you have harmed innocents.”

Namor is quiet a moment and Jim runs his finger over the tip of a pointed ear in a playful way. He feels it more than sees it, Namor was smiling a bit, but then it was gone when the king spoke, "It was still my fault and whatever comes I will face the consequences."

"You won't have to face it alone Namor."

"I know Matchstick, I know."

Jim presses a small feather kiss to Namor's forehead right above one of his eyebrows, before continuing to play with Namor's hair. It takes some time but Namor eventually speaks up again , this time without any prompt from Jim, he seems unable to contain the words that spill from his lips.

“Have you ever felt small Jim?”

“No, I don’t suppose so.”

“I never have, I was lost in the Phoenix… waves of fire towered above me. I felt like a single krill… lost in endless oceans…”

His broken voice makes Jim want to hug him, to squeeze this man to his chest, but he doesn’t because he knows that Namor would hate it. Would hate being seen as weak, for needing a hug. Jim shifted so that Namor’s head lay more comfortably in his lap.

“Hey water bug.”

“Don’t call me that fire bug. I’m a king; I have to be addressed as such.”

Jim smiled, Namor was just saying the words but it felt good to hear them, he always protested being called that. Jim pulls Namor up and he is confused about why Jim doesn’t want him in his lap anymore. Jim held Namor’s face with his hands and Namor tried to pull away, his green eyes shifting to look over the androids shoulder. Jim can’t help but feel a twinge of regret at the slow way Namor’s mouth is healing. The sea king’s lips are still covered in the burn marks from his kiss.

“I want to tell you this Namor. The **whole** world can say whatever they want to say, but I _know_ the truth. You don’t have to hide from with me.”

Namor looks back at him, and Jim doesn’t break the eye contact as he stays still. Slowly, so slowly Namor moves closer his arms slide under Jim’s armpits and hug his back, a dark haired head is now buried in Jim’s shoulder as Namor presses his nose up against Jim’s neck, taking in his scent, of fire. Unlike the phoenix this didn’t make him feel sick, he had been spending the last week in Jim’s new apartment, silently hiding away from the world as he tried to remember what it was like to be alone in his head. The phoenix left an echo there and he hated it. Jim had not asked him anything; he simply brought Namor home like one of his stray cats and kept him. He took care of him even when Namor cursed at Jim to leave him be. Now Namor tightens the muscles in his arms. The hug is quiet, and long and full of a silent desperation as both men tried to impress upon the other how much this meant to them. Namor was the first to release himself and Jim didn’t force him instead he leaned back in his chair and gave the Atlantean his space. The king of the oceans rubs his face with his hands as if trying to scrub away an expression.

“I know Jim, I know but when We-I was that thing, all I wanted was to burn, it believes that to make way for the new the old must die…”

Jim is quiet as Namor slowly tapers off, and then he lays his own head in Namor’s lap, when Namor looks down on him confused, Jim rolls his eyes and his voice is slightly exasperated, “You can’t have the new without the old, our experiences, they hurt us, they burn us and leave their scars, but we learn from them, we heal and grow.”

Namor opens his mouth and then closes it, he is unsure of what to say, he is glad, that Jim is here. Jim seems to understand that Namor is not going to say more so he turns up the volume on the TV and watches a silly comedy without really seeing. After some time he feels long fingers running through his blonde hair and he smiles at the gentle way Namor moves his hand. The king is afraid, but Jim knew that with time he would heal, he would grow, and the inferno that consumed him would become a small ember, never really leaving him, but more manageable. Jim knew Namor would wake from nightmares for a while more and that the he would not tell Jim he was afraid of fire, but he was grateful that Namor was not afraid of him. Whatever else may happen, Jim knew in his heart that nothing could ever burn away what was between them.

 

 

**Fan Art created by Grazie.Thank you so much for the art! I love and cherish it.**

Link: https://penciler-grazie.tumblr.com/post/177849369790/fanart-request-for-imperiuswrecked-from-a-palette

 

**Author's Note:**

> I just wanted Jim to face the Phoenix and save Namor. Also I didn't like how after the phoenix left Namor in the comic the other heroes basically ignored him and left him on the ground, and I wanted Jim to be the one to comfort him.
> 
> Takes inspiration from Avengers vs X-Men (2012) #8 and from Avengers vs X-Men: Consequences (2012) #4  
> Edited to include an amazing fan art!


End file.
